Skins golf explained
without the scorecard argument.
How individual holes become skins, how carryovers build and how Yardages settles the pot.
Who it suits
Choose skins when this sounds like your group.
Best for two to four players who want a fresh contest on every hole and enjoy the pressure of a growing carryover.
The format in plain English
Each hole begins worth one skin. The lowest score wins it outright; when the lowest score is tied, nobody wins and that skin carries to the next hole.
Handicap and stake handling
Skins is an informal format, so the group must agree before the round whether scores are gross or net, what each skin is worth and what happens to an unresolved final carryover.
Yardages currently compares gross scores and counts skins rather than money. If your group wants net skins, calculate the agreed hole strokes separately and make that rule explicit before play.
What decides the winner
The player with the most skins after the final settlement wins. Because a carryover can make one hole worth several skins, the lowest total stroke score does not necessarily win.
Worked example
A three-hole carryover
Three players start with one skin on each hole.
- Hole 1: two players tie for the low gross score. No winner; one skin carries.
- Hole 2: the low score is tied again. No winner; the next pot grows to three skins.
- Hole 3: one player makes the only 4 and wins all three skins.
The carryover resets, so hole 4 returns to one skin.
Common pitfalls
- Starting without agreeing gross or net scoring and the final-hole carryover rule.
- Awarding a tied hole to someone instead of carrying the skin.
- Assuming the app applies handicaps when its current skins engine compares gross scores.
How Yardages handles it
- Yardages uses the lowest valid gross score on each hole.
- Tied low scores carry the whole pot forward; a sole low scorer collects it and resets the pot.
- The leaderboard ranks players by total skins won and shows the holes they collected.
Accuracy sources
Related pages
More after Skins
Skins, carryovers, and three-ball formats that don't ruin the round
Skins and nine-point without the rulebook energy. How carryovers work, why three-ball is awkward, and the small rule changes that keep the game interesting on the back nine.
Read moreNine-point golf explained
The three-player format that shares nine points on every hole, including every tie combination.
Read moreMatchplay golf explained
How holes are won, tied and lost, where strokes fall and when a match ends.
Read more
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